Congratulations! It’s a…dog?
Earlier this week on a popular Australian Gold Network show “Jonesy & Amanda,” hosts Amanda Keller and Brendan “Jonesy” Jones debated what can only be described as a modern-day HR headache — a woman who’s demanded maternity leave to care for her newborn puppy.
In the clip, the hosts respond to a video of an unidentified woman in the US who claims to be the new dog mom’s boss, complaining that she “has a meeting with HR in the morning because I was accused by one of my employees of being insensitive to women that struggle with fertility.”
The hosts then go on to read the dog mom’s e-mail (provided by her boss), where she follows up on her paw-ternity leave request — acknowledging that although HR “said maternity leave is for employees who give birth, I genuinely don’t see how that’s relevant.”
“‘I recently brought home an eight-week-old golden retriever, and I’m now responsible for another living being,’” Keller reads from the email. “He wakes up every two hours. I’m getting absolutely no sleep, and I’m experiencing all the challenges of being a new mother.”
In the email, the jilted pup parent clarifies that she is “requesting eight weeks of fully paid maternity leave to bond with my son.”
“‘If this gets denied, I’ll be filing a formal complaint for discrimination against women experiencing fertility [issues], who chose to become dog mums,’” the email concludes. “‘Thank you for respecting my journey into motherhood.’”
Immediately, Keller and Jones get into a dog toy-esque tug of war.
“Eight weeks — you know, maybe a week,” Jones reasoned.
Keller self-admittedly played the role of devil’s advocate and reiterated the woman’s position — while acknowledging that a large number of others’ comments on the new dog mom’s plight hadn’t been quite so understanding.
“This woman said, ‘I had my uterus cut open, sewn back up and had to care for a baby while recovering,’” Keller said, reading one commenter’s heated words on the untraditional bid for leave. “I only got six weeks leave, and they want that for a dog.”
Keller and Jones also opened discussion on the canine conundrum to callers — most of whom agreed that the woman’s boss was in the right.
“I think the boss [is right],” the first caller weighed in. “I think the dog mum needs to contact her behaviourist and get some education on how to raise a puppy. If it’s waking up every two hours and keeping her awake, she needs someone to help her with that training.”
“Oh my god, the boss!” agreed another.
“What the hell?! The boss, 100%,” said a third.
One outlier determined that neither the boss nor the employee were being entirely reasonable — sharing her take that the unusual request for maternity leave was in fact valid, but should be shorter than the requested eight weeks.
“She gets 21 days if she wants to treat it like a human, but it’s 21 days to create a habit,” the contrarian caller said. “Show in 21 days, ‘I’m here, I’m mummy, I’m loving you, but I’m leaving you alone for eight hours a day.’ That’s what she gets.”
The doggy debate has continued on social media, where opinions were even more polarized.
“Personally I don’t see this as an unreasonable request,” said one Instagram sympathizer. “With more women choosing to not have kids, instead choosing a dog/cat. In the UK, you get up to a year of statutory maternity leave. I took [two] weeks of annual leave and WFH for 6 weeks, which was appreciated and helped with sleep deprivation etc.”
“Companies that offer pawternity leave are amazing,” reasoned a slightly more nuanced commenter. “But it is not mandatory. You [knew] before you got a puppy that your company doesn’t offer this benefit. Deal with it.”
When it comes to, well, human maternity and paternity leave, Australia bests the United States. According to Rippling, the Land Down Under offers 26 weeks of paid parental leave at the national minimum wage for up to 24 weeks, funded by the government.
The US, on the other hand, sits as one of the lowest high-income countries for maternity leave benefits, providing unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) up to 12 weeks for companies with 50 or more employees, and only if that employee has completed at least 12 months of service, per the outlet. Fourteen states and Washington, D.C. do have mandatory paid family leave programs.
Paternity leave, while typically grouped in with FMLA, is often left out of the conversation entirely.
As for paw-ternity leave, there are no federal laws regarding time off for new pet owners — though a few states have proposed bills for pet-related bereavement or to take care of a sick animal, per Employment Law Worldview.
In New York, lawmakers have proposed expanding the current leave policies with Assembly Bill A.791. If passed, employees who are pet owners would be able to use paid sick leave to take care of a pet or service animal.
In the private sector, companies like Mars Petcare, mParticle, BitSol Solutions, and BrewDog have offered employees a version of new pet parent leave for fur babies, from a few days up to two weeks, per Secret NYC.
For now, new dog moms and dads may face a fight from their employers if they want to take time off to soak in that new puppy love.